The only link beyond Madeira to have real meaning for Marianna was news of her son. Dick’s letters had been infrequent, almost curt, and she knew they had been penned purely from a sense of filial duty. There was nothing in them to give comfort to a sorrowing mother, yet in the past two or three months she had clung to a wistful belief that her son’s bitterness and anger were on the wane. Perhaps, after a full twelvemonth away, his broken young heart was mending; perhaps too, with added maturity, he was beginning to understand that his mother might not have been so grievously sinning as he had judged her to be.
Now, as Marianna strolled back to the quinta, she saw old Nuno hobbling along the path to find her, a letter in his
‘From the boy, minha senhora,’ he called, his raucous voice sending a flurry of linnets and green canaries into the air.
Marianna took the letter with trembling fingers and tore it open. There were two whole pages in Dick’s sprawling hand, more than she had ever received from him previously. He began just as usual by informing her briefly that he was quite well, and trusting that she was too. But Dick then went on to describe in some detail the sad scene in London at the present time, with everyone in mourning for the Queen; besides which, there was continuing dissension over the conduct of the war.
The newspapers are full of it, and one hears so many conflicting opinions that it’s difficult to know what to think. But I’m more and more inclined to take the view of Mr Lloyd George and his Liberals, though that’s called being pro-Boer.
The war, on the other hand, was undoubtedly good for the shipping trade. Every vessel of the Penfold Line was kept fully chartered at the highest tariffs, and Ralph was positively gleeful these days.
I can’t help feeling, though, that it’s wrong to profit so much from other men fighting and dying. Perhaps instead I should be out in South Africa with them — and I’d go willingly if I didn’t have such doubts about the whole wretched business.
And then came what to Marianna was the most revealing part of Dick’s letter.
The other day I had a long talk with Sir Cedric Kendall, who took me to dine at his club. He’s a splendid fellow, isn’t he, and he spoke most warmly of you, mama. Of course he thinks I was mistaken in dropping the idea of Oxford, and you would agree with him about that! Ah well ...
The letter concluded with warmer felicitations than usual, and a wish to be remembered to all his friends in Madeira. Give my fondest love to dear old Linguareira, say I miss having her smack my head. And to the servants and estate people. And Eduardo Teixeiro and his wife.
Why had he picked on Eduardo especially, Marianna wondered. As her feitor, of course, Eduardo held the highest position among the villagers, but her son had never sent good wishes to him before. Was it because Dick had somehow come to know that the Teixeiros might be his grandparents? If so — and if he didn’t reject the thought as untenable — it must surely mean that he was no longer clinging with such desperation to the belief that he was truly a Penfold.
This whole letter of Dick’s … she knew her son well enough to recognize that he was reaching out to her. That even if Dick did not realize the fact himself, it was a cry for help. He had acted impetuously, rashly, and now regretted what he had done.
It was up to her to make the next move.
‘I am going to England,’ she told Linguareira, the moment she arrived back at the house. ‘On the first available ship.’
‘What nonsense is this, menina?’
‘I’ve had a letter from Dick. Reading between the lines, I think he needs me.’
‘Then the boy should come home. He should come and beg on his bended knees for his mother’s forgiveness.’
‘What do I care about what he should or should not do?’ said Marianna impatiently. ‘I shall go to him.’
‘And be insulted and abused all over again?’
‘I must risk that. But somehow I have a feeling that Dick will be glad to see me, Linguareira. Now, about what clothes I shall need to take ... I must have proper mourning for the Queen.’
* * * *
Marianna did not cable Dick that she was coming until the very morning she took ship, lest he should try to prevent her. She also asked him to reserve accommodation for her at a suitable hotel, adding, I would prefer to be independent.
She had expected, of course, that Dick would do his duty and come to meet her at Southampton, but all the same it was something of a relief to see him standing among the waving throng on the dockside. As she watched her son stride up the gangway and step aboard, she was astonished to see how he had filled out, what a man he had become. There was a confidence in the way he wore his smart raglan overcoat, and the small moustache he sported made him look older than his eighteen years.
Marianna held out her arms, and to her great joy he came and hugged her warmly.
‘Oh mama, it is good to see you.’
‘And you, dearest. I hardly recognized you, you are so grownup.’
They went down to her cabin and Dick paced around in the confined space while Marianna, to cover her own nervousness, collected together the few items remaining now that the trunks had been packed and collected.
‘Why have you come to England, mama?’ he asked presently, and very casually.
Marianna knew that she must tread with caution. ‘There is really nothing to prevent me from taking a few weeks’ holiday, you know, and it seemed a nice idea to come and see you.’
‘I’ve booked a suite for you at the Savoy,’ he told her. ‘It’s a new hotel on the Victoria Embankment. I think you will be comfortable there.’
‘I’m sure I shall be.’
‘I was jolly thankful that you decided to stay at an hotel.’ He ran his finger round the polished brass rim of a porthole, carefully not looking at her. ‘Things aren’t very happy between Ralph and me these days.’
‘Oh, and why is that?’
He hesitated a moment, then shrugged. ‘We don’t exactly see eye to eye about a number of things … important things.”
‘Am I to understand that you and he disagree about the management of the Penfold Line?’
‘It’s about Ralph’s whole attitude, in matters of business and everything else. I’m not so innocent, of course, that I don’t realize there are plenty of firms — firms of all kinds — doing extremely well out of the war, but —’
‘It is Ralph Penfold’s good fortune,’ Marianna pointed out, trying to be fair, ‘that he has ships available at a time when shipping must be desperately needed.’
‘Oh, but there’s far more to it than that, mama.’
‘How do you mean?’ she asked, but Dick would not be drawn, and just gave a shrug. Marianna turned the conversation by inquiring about Ralph’s wife and their two children.
‘They’re well enough.’ After a pause, he went on, ‘I must admit that I feel sorry for Alicia... I’d feel sorry for any woman married to Ralph. He’s not at all caring, he doesn’t pay attention to her the way a husband should.’ Dick gave a small sigh. ‘Luckily for Alicia, she’s got her parents. They seem a very close family.’
‘Yes, that’s good.’
Into a growing silence, Maranna said, ‘You said in your letter, Dick, that you liked Cedric Kendall. I’m glad about that. I liked him too, very much. Not that I got to know him well, because he and Eunice were married soon after I arrived in England, and almost at once they left for India. They remained out there until after I had returned to Madeira. I heard that Cedric’s father had died, so I suppose he now runs the family estate in Sussex?’
‘That’s right. Actually, he’s invited me down to Hardwick Manor for Easter,’
‘Will you go?’
‘I should like to, I think.’
‘Then why not? Eunice wasn’t disposed to be friendly towards me in the old days, but I daresay that time has mellowed her.’
‘She has always been pleasant to me the few times we have met in town, when they’ve lunched or dined at Cadogan Place.’ He gave Marianna a h
esitant look. ‘Cedric explained that things were not made easy for you, when you lived in England.’ He hung back, then said in a little rush, ‘There is a great deal I have come to understand lately, mama.’
Whether he would have said anything more Marianna was not to know, for they were interrupted by the arrival of her stewardess, a cheerful young woman whose husband was one of the ship’s engineers.
‘Ready to go ashore, ma’am?’
‘Yes, I think so. Betsy, this is my son who has come to meet me from London.’ Marianna had a sovereign ready, and pressed it into the girl’s hand. Thank you so much for all you have done for me.’
The boat train was rather full and she and Dick had to share their first-class compartment, so that their talk was confined to generalities as they hurtled across the mist-shrouded countryside of an English February. Marianna was thankful that this particular train did not stop at Edgeley, and she caught only a brief glimpse of Highmount’s red chimneys as they flashed past.
By the time they reached London the worst of the fog had been left behind and pale sunlight gave a phantom beauty to the rows of grim little houses backing on to the railway line. Waterloo Station was surely larger and more bustling than she remembered, and when they took a cab (quieter now because of the india-rubber tyres, Dick explained) the skyline as seen from the bridge across the Thames was vastly changed.
‘That’s the Savoy Hotel over there,’ Dick told her, pointing. ‘And the larger building on the left of it is the Cecil. But I thought the Savoy more your cup of tea, mama; it’s not so flashy.’
A few minutes later they were being ushered into a river-facing suite on the second floor. In the sitting room, where a welcoming coal fire burned, the wallpaper was a William Morris design of chrysanthemum flowers and foliage, and the chairs and sofas were upholstered in sage green velvet. There was electric lighting throughout, demonstrated by the maître d’hotel with a few deft flicks of a switch, and a magnificent tiled bathroom for her private use.
‘Do you like it, mama?’ asked Dick anxiously. ‘Will you be comfortable here?’
‘But of course, dearest, it’s charming.’ With a smile, she added. ‘How well you know my taste.’
‘Will you want to engage a maid for your stay?’
‘I think not. The hotel attendance will do me very nicely.’
She ordered tea and muffins to be sent up, and when at last she was alone with her son she hoped he would pick up the threads of their interrupted conversation on the boat. But instead Dick said briskly, ‘I expect you’re pretty fatigued, mama, so after tea I’ll leave you to have a rest. I suggest we dine quietly here in the hotel this evening. There’ll be plenty of time for you to see London — the new restaurants and theatres. You’ll love Romano’s and the Cafe Royal.’
‘I place myself in your hands,’ Marianna told him, warmed by the thought that he was putting himself out to please her.
When Dick had gone, she was surprised to realize that she did indeed feel quite tired and was glad of this chance to rest. But an hour upon the sofa before the fire put her entirely to rights. By the time a message came that her son awaited her downstairs in the foyer, Marianna was ready dressed in her new gown of black velvet, with jet jewellery and an aigrette in her hair. She was aware that she looked well in black, but Dick surprised and delighted her by his enthusiastic
‘Mama! How stunningly beautiful you look!’
‘I see that London has taught you the trick of paying a gallant compliment,’ she said, tapping his shoulder with her fan. ‘You look very fine yourself, young man, in that immaculate dress suit.’
He blushed. ‘Well, you know, a chap has to have decent clothes in London.’
At a lamplit table for two in the elegant salle à manger, Marianna questioned him about what work he did at the Penfold Line offices in Leadenhall Street.
‘Oh, I do a bit of this and that. What it really amounts to is that Ralph pays me a salary and I help out generally.’
‘Is he teaching you the business?’
‘Hardly. I just use my eyes and ears and pick up what I can.’
Knowing it to be unwise at this early stage, Marianna still could not prevent herself from asking, ‘What exactly is wrong, Dick? In your letter it seemed to me that you were unhappy.’
‘I told you, Ralph and I don’t see eye to eye about things.’
‘But I suspect there is something more than mere disagreement over the conduct of the firm. Something deeper.’
Dick’s dismissive shrug would have deceived no one.
‘What nonsense,’ he said, and rushed on, ‘Oh, jolly good, the orchestra is going to give us another tune.’
The moment for confidence, if it had ever existed this evening, was gone now. Marianna resigned herself to asking her son what he suggested she might do on the morrow.
‘I’m taking another day off in order to show you round London a bit, mama. There are so many new things that you won’t have seen before. I thought you’d enjoy a ride on an electric tram to the Elephant and Castle, and we can go on the twopenny tube if you would like that. And we must certainly fit in a drive for you in a motor car while you are here.”
‘Heavens!’ she laughed. ‘I shall probably be frightened out of my wits.’
They had reached the dessert course when Dick said, as if carelessly, ‘Oh, by the way, you are invited to dine at Cadogan Place on Thursday evening.’
‘Then I had better accept with proper grace,’ she replied. ‘Please convey my thanks to Alicia and say that I look forward to seeing her again.’
After she had said goodnight to Dick, quite early, Marianna found herself thinking of Cedric Kendall — the one man in England, it appeared, whom she could count upon as a friend. She would dearly like to talk to him before she saw Ralph, to discover precisely what he had told her son. Would it be possible, she wondered, to make a telephone call to Hardwick Manor?
Inquiries at the reception desk next morning elicited the information, after a consulting of directories, that indeed Sir Cedric Kendall was a telephone subscriber. It took only fifteen minutes for the trunk connection to be made. In the small booth, Marianna lifted the receiver from its hook, held it to her ear and uttered the approved opening into the mouthpiece.
‘Hallo! Are you there? Hallo!’
She thought with a flutter of panic that she would never be able to understand the tinny voice that answered, but was thankful to find after the first few words that she could hear quite distinctly.
‘I was informed that you are Mrs Marianna Penfold. Can that really be so?’
‘Yes, this is Marianna. I am speaking from London. From the Savoy Hotel.’
‘I see. Dick did not mention that you were coming to England when I saw him recently, my dear.’
‘It was a spur of the moment decision. I was wondering, Cedric, if we might meet whilst I am here.’
‘Of course. Delighted. Why don’t you come down to Sussex for a few days?’
‘Oh, I think not,’ she said sharply.
That was inept of her, but Cedric took it without offence. ‘I won’t press you, Marianna, but do believe me when I say that you would be very welcome. So you’d like to see me in London, eh?’
‘Well, I was rather hoping that you might have plans to come to town in the next day or two. I suppose, though, that...’
‘I can very easily make it my business to come and see you,’ he said.
‘But I couldn’t expect you to make the journey especially on my account.’
‘My pleasure, I assure you. What about tomorrow, can we meet for luncheon?’
‘That would be splendid.’
‘I would suggest taking you to my club, where I took Dick, but the “Rag” is so wretchedly stuffy about lady guests. Would Claridge’s suit you? Shall we say one o’clock?’
Marianna had carried Cedric Kendall in her mind as the young Guards’ officer whom she had first met at Highmount, handsome and dashing and fresh-faced. She was afr
aid she might not recognize him after all these years. It was a distinguished-looking, middle-aged man who awaited her in the hotel foyer, his hair greying at the temples; but she knew him instantly and hurried forward, smiling.
‘My dear Marianna,’ he murmured, bowing over her hand. ‘How good it is to see you, and how charming you look.’
‘You were always very kind, Cedric.’
He escorted her upon his arm to a quiet lounge and asked, when they were seated, ‘What will you take as an aperitif? They serve a good dry Madeira here, even if it isn’t one of your Dalby wines.’
‘I think perhaps I’ll be a Philistine,’ she said, ‘and try a fino sherry for a change. How is your family, Cedric?’
‘All well. The offspring are no longer children, of course.’
‘Let me see, Roland will be twenty and Julia nineteen?’
He was pleased that she remembered. ‘We shall be celebrating Roland’s coming-of-age in June. He’s at Sandhurst now, you know.’
‘Following his father in a military career?’
‘It’s a long-standing tradition in my family. And Julia has recently become engaged to a young man of whom Eunice and I approve wholeheartedly, so we count ourselves fortunate in our children.’
‘And Eunice herself?’
‘She leads a busy life. She instructed me to say that we very much hope you will make an opportunity to visit us before you return home.’ The grey eyes regarded her with candour. ‘Eunice sincerely means it, my dear.’
The arrival of the waiter saved Marianna the need to respond. As she sipped her sherry, Cedric startled her by saying in his clipped way, ‘You want to talk to me about your son, of course. Dick is a fine young man. You have managed very well, bringing him up on your own.’
‘Thank you, Cedric. He also speaks of you most warmly. I think that he found his recent conversation with you of considerable help.’
‘I was only too glad to be of service, and I hope I may be so again. I realized that the boy was sorely troubled in his mind, but he was unable to bring himself to take me fully into his confidence. Have you managed to discover what lies at the root of his present distress?’
Marianna Page 26
